Make-At-Home Pad Thai Sauce Recipe

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When you reach the level of making your own condiments, you know you're a serious cook, although actually some condiments can be seriously easy to make. One such condiment is this homemade pad Thai sauce, something that recipe developer Catherine Brookes says is "much easier to make than you'd think." She also notes that it can be made well in advance of the pad Thai or any other use to which you might like to put it, saying "it's a great one to mix up in advance and store in the fridge."

This pad Thai sauce recipe has three distinct elements: a sour flavor that here comes from tamarind paste, some saltiness that is supplied by both soy and fish sauce, and some sweetness which here is due in large part to the brown sugar, although there's sweetness from the rice vinegar, as well.

We've already mentioned most of the ingredients you'll be using to make this pad thai sauce: there's the tamarind paste (homemade or store-bought), which Brookes says "adds a distinct earthy taste that is characteristic of pad Thai and balances well with the other sweet and salty ingredients." There's also the soy sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar, which constitute the aforementioned sweet and salty stuff. The last ingredient on the list is a pinch of crushed red pepper to give this sauce a little heat.

What makes this recipe so simple it that once you've assembled all of the necessary ingredients, you're 90% home. Find a suitable container to store the sauce, then just measure the ingredients right into it. Stir or, if the container is a lidded one, shake the sauce until everything comes together. Once the tamarind paste has been absorbed into the other liquids and the sugar dissolves, your sauce is all done.

You can, of course, make a few tweaks to flavor your pad Thai sauce and customize it to your individual taste. For starters, Brookes notes that "some pad Thai sauce recipes also include peanut butter." Chili garlic sauce or sambal oelek could also be used, and in some sauces lime juice is used as a sour element in place of the tamarind. You could also make a vegan version by skipping the fish sauce, although in that case Brookes says, "I would recommend adding an extra tablespoon of soy sauce."

While this pad Thai sauce can, of course, be used to sauce pad Thai, that's not all you can do with it. Brookes suggests pairing this pad Thai sauce with other stir fries in general, or simply with rice or noodles. You might also find this sauce useful for dipping with potstickers or gyoza. You could also use it as a marinade for pork or chicken, or even use it to dress an Asian-style slaw or salad.

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As written, this recipe for pad Thai sauce certainly doesn't yield an incredibly spicy result. In fact, this is more of a salty sauce, with elements of sweetness and tanginess from the tamarind paste. The red pepper flakes are where the heat is at, so if you're looking for a sauce that has no spicy elements whatsoever, simply remove those and you're good to go. Conversely, the easiest way to amp up the spice level of this pad Thai sauce is to up the amount of red pepper flakes you add to the mix, so consider bumping up the called-for ¼ teaspoon to ½ teaspoon for more of a kick. 

Another way to add more spice to this pad Thai sauce is to incorporate fresh chiles, something that Brookes specifically recommends. There are quite a few types of chile peppers out there, and all offer varying heat levels. Start with something like a Bird's eye (or Thai) chile and add just ¼ teaspoon to start. You can easily chop up more of the chile and add it as needed or as desired for a perfectly spicy pad Thai sauce.

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